SeneGence Review: Recruit affiliates, they buy, you earn (pyramid?)

SeneGence are based out California and operate in the cosmetics MLM niche. The company was founded in 1998 by Joni Rogers-Kante.

As per Rogers-Kante’s SeneGence corporate bio;

Joni began her career at 16 years of age, working for the Sav-On Corporation.

By the age of 23, she was the assistant manager of the top store in the Sav-On chain. Having learned from high level management, buyers and operations experts, she knew the corporate structure was not for her.

Armed with a vision and her business education, she pursued her dream of being an entrepreneur.

Joni was introduced to a direct selling cosmetic company and recognized the incredible opportunity the industry offered to women.

Joni’s 13 year direct selling career produced jewelry, cars, awards, trips and recognition yet, more importantly, a burning desire to create a plan for the establishment of her own company which we now know as SeneGence.

Prior to founding SeneGence Rogers-Kante was an affiliate with Mary Kay.

Face

Corrective Concealers – “get the red out and blur a multitude of imperfections”, retails at $25 for a 0.25 fl oz tube

BlushSense – “provides the perfect touch of color in a long-lasting, creamy blush”, retails at $30 or a 0.25 fl oz tube

Translucid Loose Power & Bronzer – a “finely-milled, light powder with breathable finish in an all-in-one dispensing brush”, retails at $50 for a 0.2 oz bottle

MakeSense Foundation – “a combination of cosmetics with skin care to give you an impeccably flawless finish”, retails at $50 for a 1 fl oz. bottle

Advanced Anti-Aging Foundation – “this powerful, creamy foundation is packed full of protective ingredients that help prevent damage and work to shield your skin from environmental hazards like pollution, and protect your skin from the sun’s rays”, retails at $60 for a 1 fl oz bottle

LashSense With Undersense – “waterproof LashSense Mascara on one side, and lengthening and building UnderSense on the other”, retails at $20 for a 0.25 fl oz bottle

Lash Extend – “apply LashExtend to the base of the lashes and watch your lashes extend in length”, retails at $50 for a 0.125 fl oz bottle

Dark Circle Under Eye Treatment – an “effective blend of ingredients to help reduce the appearance of darkening and tighten loose skin in the sensitive area under the eyes”, retails at $50 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle

Lips

LinerSense – “line your lips with your choice of shade, for a more defined and finished look”, retails at $22 for a 0.125 fl oz bottle

LipSense – “LipSense is versatile in that you can mix shades to create a number of effects”, retails at $25 for a 0.25 fl oz bottle

LipSense Gloss – “dehydrated and damaged lips are no match for the moisturizing ability of Shea Butter, a natural ingredient used as the base for the many textures of LipSense Glosses”, retails at $20 for a 0.25 fl oz bottle

purchase 300 PV or more and recruit at least five affiliates who each purchase 300 PV or more and earn 10% on level 1, 6% on level 2 and 4% on level 3

purchase 300 PV or more, recruit five affiliates who purchase 300 PV or more, who have recruited five affiliates who purchase 300 PV or more, who have recruited five affiliates who purchase 300 PV or more, who have also recruited five affiliates who have purchased 300 PV or more (three levels of recruitment), and earn 10% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 4% on level 3 and 3% on level 4

purchase 300 PV or more and have a downline who have each recruited five affiliates who have purchased 300 PV or more each down five levels of recruitment, and earn 10% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 4% on level 3, 3% on level 4 and 2% on level 5

Joining SeneGence

SeneGence affiliate membership is $55 plus purchase of a “Distributor Business Kit”:

Conclusion

always knew that (she) wanted to start a direct sales cosmetics company that sold products that REALLY WORK and offer a career path that really paid women for helping to build a new brand.

When asked “What sets your products apart from the others on the market?”, Rogers-Kante replied;

We offer products that really work and live up to their claims.

Whether this is a dig at Mary Kay’s cosmetic line is unclear. At least as far as products go though, SeneGence’s founding was obviously heavily inspired by Joni Rogers-Kante’s time at Mary Kay.

At the core of the SeneGence business model is a requirement that affiliates purchase product and recruit five others who do the same.

The upper-tier of the compensation plan pushes that purchase requirement to 300 PV (approx $600) down five levels of recruitment, who have all done the same.

That is you recruit five affiliates (5), who each recruit five affiliates (25), who each recruit five affiliates (125), who each recruit five affiliates (625), who each recruit five affiliates (3125) – and you all purchase at least 300 PV of product a month.

Typically in MLM we see PV defined as a combination of an affiliate’s purchases and retail orders. In the SeneGence compensation plan however, repeatedly the monthly PV requirements are defined as an affiliate order.

Forcing affiliates to purchase product in MLM is “pay to play” and a major compliance issue.

In the recent FTC shutdown of Vemma, affiliates purchasing products to qualify for commissions, paid out when recruited affiliates do the same, was at the core of pyramid scheme allegations.

In SeneGence there might also be securities issues at play, as the company openly refers to signing up as an affiliate as an “investment”.

Join SeneGence with just a $55 investment.

Invest $55, continue to invest your required PV each month and get paid when you recruit others who do the same.

The flip side of this is SeneGence’s primary recommended marketing method, the “Glamour Demo”.

A Glamour Demo is another name for the party plan, which sees affiliates host parties they invite potential retail customers to.

As an incentive to drive retail sales, the more retail orders they take at these parties the higher the discount on their own product orders.

On top of this the more an affiliate spends each month the higher their personal discount:

0 to 99.5 PV = 20% discount

100 to 299.5 PV = 30% discount

300 to 749.5 PV = 40% discount

750 or more PV = 50% discount

The problem however is that this is all affiliate purchases.

As far as I can see SeneGence do nothing to discourage inventory loading, that is affiliates buying products to qualify for commissions.

In fact the way the SeneGence compensation plan is set up, it is mandatory that affiliates purchase product to earn commissions – whether they intend to consume/resell the products or not.

As per the FTC this is strongly indicative of a product-based pyramid scheme.

The good news is as a prospective SeneGence affiliate, with a bit of poking around you’ll quickly be able to confirm this for yourself.

Your potential upline (the person trying to recruit you) will be able to tell you what their retail PV volume is for the past three months, versus that of their own product order.

Make sure you’re being provided with true retail, with orders proven by documented receipts.

If the affiliate’s own order eclipses their retail volume on average from month to month, this is no different to how Vemma was operating.

In MLM you have to be selling products to retail customers and this has to be the primary method of commission generation.

Purchasing products to qualify for commissions on the promise you may or may not make retail sales isn’t good enough.

That might have flown back in 1998 but MLM regulation has since evolved. To the detriment of their affiliates, SeneGence still appear to be stuck in the past.

Apart from the obvious lack of retail focus, concentration on recruitment and autoship problems, IM(very)HO,

That is you recruit five affiliates (5), who each recruit five affiliates (25), who each recruit five affiliates (125), who each recruit five affiliates (625), who each recruit five affiliates (3125) – and you all purchase at least 300 PV of product a month

Is what is going to keep anyone but MLM junkies even contemplating joining.

The founding story is also bull****. Corporate structure was not for her? What’s this company that she created? She’s the top of corporate structure! That’s like saying “I don’t like to work, so I work for myself.”

Thank you for writing this article! You articulated everything about this company very well.

I also wrote a blog post on SeneGence, and why I quit. There are so many women getting frustrated with this company now that they see how much they are getting screwed over!

Product is out of stock all the time, many distributors have not received refunds for back-ordered items, or have only received partial refunds.

Distributors recommend that their downlines sign up for credit cards and front-load (meaning that they make bulk purchases at the beginning of each month). And it’s ABSURD that as a distributor you are required to make a minimum purchase every month in order to receive commission from your downline.

I was with another MLM where this was simply not the case!! Again, I thank you for writing this blog post!

Diana:
Distributors recommend that their downlines sign up for credit cards and front-load (meaning that they make bulk purchases at the beginning of each month). And it’s ABSURD that as a distributor you are required to make a minimum purchase every month in order to receive commission from your downline.

“Prior to founding SeneGence Rogers-Kante was an affiliate with Mary Kay.”

She learned from the best scam, Mary Kay. Women exploiting women. Mary Kay does it all day, everyday. Truly disgusting they’ve been getting away with it for so long.

While I agree the compensation isn’t great, my larger problems are with

1) the discount we receive when buying products such as being required to buy $750 worth worth of product to receive 50% off which is then heavily taxed on the $750 amount + a shipping and handling charges. It should be 50% regardless (discount starts at 20%).

2) They shouldn’t be taxing us bc they know we are resellers. LuLaRoe doesn’t charge its consultants tax nor shipping.

3) The out of stock issue is RIDCULOUS. It has created scarcity amongst its distributors so whenever something comes in stock, the folks who have the financial means, hoard all the stock buying 50+ of a color, especially limited edition colors.

4) Charging $30 a month or $300 a year for a company website that sucks as badly as the back office one does.

5) It’s 2017 and, after 20 years of business during the Internet era, they still haven’t figured out how to have a stable working website with great bandwidth.

BUT it is not a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme would be like PayCation or MCA where you got paid a $ amount per recruits WITHOUT having to actually work the business yourself. That’s a pyramid scheme– no real product to sell and a potential of making money just by selling others a dream.

Because Senegence uses the honor system where they ask if you sold at least 70% of your inventory before you can buy more (with the oos issue, folks just check it off) they’re not requiring you to pay to play; it’s requiring that you work to earn off others who are working.

You’re just going to have those w the financial means who can continue buying stock without selling.

Other ladies will have to sell in order to keep buying stock. The products do work. Mary Kay’s products are pretty good too (maybe they improved since her stint).

Maybe her dig of “products that actually work” is just geared towards those lipsticks claiming to last all day or be smudge-proof. It’s still one of the only out there to do it.

That’s a pyramid scheme– no real product to sell and a potential of making money just by selling others a dream.

That’s one type of pyramid scheme. Another is the MLM product-based pyramid scheme.

Insignificant retail sales with most of your revenue coming from recruited affiliates? That makes you a product-based pyramid scheme (ref: Vemma).

Because Senegence uses the honor system where they ask if you sold at least 70% of your inventory before you can buy more (with the oos issue, folks just check it off) they’re not requiring you to pay to play

Regulators couldn’t care less about “honor systems”. And history has shown if you pay recruitment commissions that’s what the majority of affiliates will focus on over retail sales.

it’s requiring that you work to earn off others who are working.

Buying products to qualify for commissions on recruited affiliates who do the same isn’t work.

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